The big resignations: a sign of a turning point?
The growing number of workers who voluntarily leave their jobs, which in Italy reached a record number of 480 thousand people from April to June, has access to the debate all over the world: in the United States they called it Great Resignation or Big Quit.
The interpretative keys are many, in many cases related to the post-pandemic, but what seems to emerge strongly among the causes is the worsening of the quality of life of workers and the desire for work choices in which one does not have to make painful compromises between efficiency and one’s own well-being. (Source)
Mixed working arrangements (office-home) not properly designed, depressing work environments, confusion of roles and responsibilities, poor exploitation of potential, lack of shared objectives, difficulties in managing transitions to new digital processes, are some aspects that have flared up in recent months, thus highlighting the inadequacy of organizational models and working methods of the past.
An earthquake that cannot leave indifferent all companies aware that the search to produce more and more results, in less and less time, should be combined with a concrete commitment to generate prosperity and well-being for employees through a more agile way of working that allows achieving a true work-life balance.
The Electronics case: precursors to be imitated
There is no lack of positive cases in this rapidly changing scenario. Companies that have addressed, already before the Covid emergency, the theme of joint growth of business and people, to seize the dual opportunity to face the challenges of the future and be attractive at the same time.
The Elettronica case, engaged with its more than 900 employees in the design, development and production of strategic surveillance systems, defense and electronic countermeasures for naval, air and land use, is among the most interesting, so that it was placed in the 14th place among the 50 best workplace Italy 2021 and in the 29th place at a European level as told us Simone Astiaso Garcia, Vice President Engineering & Operations during the workshop with Luciano Attolico entitled “Travelling to the Lean Lifestyle Company”.
For the Roman company, the path towards a way of working oriented to the principles of a Lean Lifestyle Company began in 2017 with an initial survey extended to the whole company and then with a vast training program and individual and corporate projects that involved about 500 people (the case is described in the book “The Lean Lifestyle Strategy for Businesses”, Routledge 2025).
Objectives: reduce interruptions, multitasking and environmental barriers to facilitate high concentration work; improve email management and increase the effectiveness of meetings.
The new habits aimed at making work more agile and improving people’s well-being have been built through a process which, in addition to removing structural barriers and developing new skills, provided continuous monitoring of key indicators and the use of structured feedback. The program also developed during the remote work phase and was adapted to the new context by using digitized systems for performance monitoring and measurement.
Concrete and measurable results
The results achieved through new modes of work agile and high concentration have increased work performance and at the same time raised people’s energy levels and reduced stress, as witnessed by Simone Astiaso, Vice President Engineering & Operations of Elettronica in the workshop “Travelling to the Lean Lifestyle Company“, with Luciano Attolico, CEO of Lenovys and author of The Lean Lifestyle Strategies for businesses”. [Watch the video]
Some examples of improvement in the indicators used to monitor the development program:
- Clarity meeting agendas: from 66% to 90%
- Response to meeting calls: 74% to 89%
- Meeting duration: from over 2 hours to 1 hour.
- Meeting punctuality: from 59% to 82%
- Reducing sources of work disruption: -43% email; -27% phone
- Reduction of lead time in the Design Solutions department: from 42/38 months to 12/18 months
If you want to review the entire testimony of the path taken by Elettronica, you can find it on the Lenovys channel, on YouTube
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